Naismith leaves it late

A LATE strike from Jason Naismith was enough to give St Mirren a narrow win in a keenly contested Renfrewshire Cup Final which saw both sides create good opportunities at rain-lashed Cappielow.

And, although it was the Premiership side that came out in the end, Saints boss Tommy Craig admitted he thought the match was heading for penalties.

Craig said: “Morton started really well and if they’d taken one of their chances in the first halfhour it would have been a different ball game.

“We scored a great goal, but at that stage I thought the game would end up a draw. It was an excellent fitness exercise for us and bear in mind we still have a bit of pre-season to go with another three matches.”

A crowd of 2,811 created a great derby atmosphere and the home fans were almost celebrating early on when Stefan McCluskey’s ambitious 25- yarder was deflected inches over. Mor ton skipper Andy Barrowman then clipped the bar with another longrange effort as the League One side gave their more fancied rivals a scare.

Ewan McLean was denied in first half stoppage time by Nicolas Caraux’s save to turn away his 18-yard shot.

Morton suffered a blow when McCluskey went off with a suspected broken collar bone to be replaced by David McNeil.

On 60 minutes Morton wentclosewithDavidMcNeil cutting back for Joe McKee whose shot brought a great one- handed save from Marian Kello.

But the winner came at the other end when Greg Wylde crossed from the byeline and Naismith finished clinically with a low shot into the corner.

Home boss Jim Duffy declared:“It was a good performance from us against a good Premiership side.”